Dive Brief:
- After an audit, the HHS Office of Inspector General is demanding that Robert Packer Hospital of Sayre, PA repay about $1.88 million in Medicare funds.
- The OIG looked at claims for services provided between 2009 through 2011. More than one-third of the examined claims had billing errors, according to Medicare policy.
- Hospital executives, in response, agreed that 16 of the 99 claims were incorrectly billed, but argued the remaining claims did not have errors.
Dive Insight:
Most of the errors found by the OIG were on the inpatient side, specifically for claims that billed Medicare Part A for services that should have been treated on an outpatient basis. The hospital plans to appeal the claims targeted by the OIG, but the OIG is standing firm and has said it expects the hospital to refund all outlined reimbursements, according to Becker's Hospital Review. The appeals process is likely to drag on for some time, so stay tuned.